Harper

Jumping to her feet, Harper breathed in the sense of relief gifted by the exhaustion of her magic. Wielding the intelectus that processed her stats, Harper summoned an explanation of what occurred.

[Fortification points spent on assemble primitive wall 257]

Just how many points do I have?

[Magic fortification:

Fortification points 8/275]

Her mind watched the fortification points tick over, now reading 9/275. Even knowing that this meant her fear would return to full force, her smile just kept glowing. This is going to be fun!

Fingertips trailing across the room-sized fortification, she marveled at its completeness. Even with small branches that weren't cleared of the raw material poking out and small gaps here and there, it was finished. Looming over the campsite like wooden ribs with a membrane stretched across, it would give her time to respond to a monster attack. Maybe even thwart it outright.

Pressure that Harper now realized was laid on her shoulders by the bloodcurdling cry of the monster's prey evaporated. A world of opportunities opened up. She still had to vanquish the monster, but for now, she had time. It didn't hurt that the min-max side of her wanted to take full advantage of the Enhanced skill growth granted to aid this transition phase. Speaking of.

[New skill awarded building 6. Building 6 overrides building 5]

Apparently, by magic or muscle, the end product was what counted to skill progression. Placing a finger on her lip, Harper contemplated. Or maybe not. Assemble may be building but empower could be a totally different skill. At the cost of 500 fortification points, it would have to wait. Still, if it was a separate skill, she would rather level it up with the skill boost active.

All this left her waiting on magic to recharge, so Harper gathered up supplies in the meantime. Seeing how her power shaped the raw wood, she went with taking down full trees. Looking at her tools, the task began to take on a daunting shape in her mind. Maybe she could build a better tool sometime.

For now, the hatchet would have to do. Setting to the work, she found a rhythm chop up, chop down, breath. Something about being in nature and being productive drew her in. The value she was adding to the world wasn't some abstract concept. Instead, she could feel the importance, see it, and it mattered. The wall she was ready to retreat to mattered to her. Up, down, breathe. Enforcing a balance of rest, even for just a moment, to keep her from overworking to an exhausted state. Years spent to find the balance of all the demands of life and now when life was simplified, it became easier. Not what she would have guessed about leaving behind modern conveniences. Up, down, breath, slap a bug.

Now that was something she could do without. Never in her life did she have to deal with this many itchy bug bites. It almost justified turning a magnificent forest into a parking lot.

An hour of chopping later, the tree base was slimmed down to its last 25%-30% of material. Now to cut on the back side of the tree so it would fall into the side of her first cut. Stepping back, her meditation broke away and she became aware of a ball of unready fear growing next to her heart. Checking her status returned 189/265. The pressure was uncomfortable but bearable. Seeing as she didn't have to bear it, she wouldn't.

Returning to her camp, Harper selected the wall again.

[Primitive wall - Valid target

Empower (0/500)]

Getting ready to drain her power, she paused. What else should she do first?

An actual door would make a world of difference at this point. Ducking her head, she was so glad there wasn't anyone watching. Not having a door was a security risk of another level. Bringing the rest of her building materials to the entrance, she generated a building intelectus. With her issues, her status open, and her magic at almost 200, this burden took on a near physical pressure on her mind. Gritting her teeth, she pushed through. After all, maybe there was a skill for this.

Setting the intelectus to work outlining the door she wanted to build, the image began to take on a life of its own. Her limited knowledge of wood, branches, rope, and leather hinges came together without her micromanaging everything. It was magical. Harper snorted, though the humor failed to break her grimace. After a planning phase, the portal design finally coalesced in glowing lines. A socket in the top and bottom corner of the doorway would accept the largest log to rotate inside it. On that hinge log, the rest of the door would be grafted and tied together. Finally, it had a sturdy latching system, pulled right from her memories of an old-time door braced in place with a timber in brackets.

Squaring off against the doorframe, Harper unleashed her magic to assemble the door.

[Primitive door - valid target

Assemble (0-144)]

It seemed pretty expensive compared to the wall. Still, all the complex parts and work made her glad to have magic to do the job instead. Blue lightning arced from her heart, looping around her outstretched arms before striking the glowing image and supplies. Branches moved and warped of their own accord. Strips of the boar leather split off from the rest of the hide and began interweaving the structure. Throughout a handful of heartbeats, the breach in her camp was filled with a defensible door.

[Primitive door - valid target

Empower (0/500)

Shield (0/250)]

Her building intelectus shifted upon the completion of the work. If the knowledge didn't splice so automatically into her mind she wouldn't have noticed. The freedom of letting the mental burden go was almost intoxicating.

With the last of her energy, she tried funneling it into the door's shield ability. Running her finger on the pseudo-monsters leather, Harper formed a strong hunch on where the shield option came from. Blue arcs of power again spooled down her arm into the door until her magic was totally empty.

Returning to the tree with a whittled-down base Harper got back to work. Opening up a crack on the reverse side of the tree put more tension on the remaining fibers. Anticipation gave her a tension she usually related to stress. Maybe it was her imagination but she kept feeling as though the next strike would fall the tree. Eventually, that feeling proved correct and a small cascade of cracking signaled her to hop away.

"TIMBER!" Harper's voice cracked as she tried to impersonate a lumberjack.

When a tree falls in the forest and someone is around to hear it they also hear it tearing through the branches of entangled trees. Most of the branches that broke hadn't been broken free by the falling tree. Oh well, it was too much to hope for some light work to do anyway. Getting back to work, Harper slipped back into an almost meditative state.

Stripping the branches away from the trunk, just how much she had ignored the magic of the present situation stuck out to her.There had to be some advantages she had just been leaving on the table. She had to do better.

Tears found their way out of her eyes as she kept hacking away. It was so sudden it caught her by surprise. Transported to a new world away from everything she knew and all her friends. She'd never had that many friends, so those she made meant all the more to her. Lora would have been dragging her to game night. She always hated going but loved it when she settled in. Just the right amount of drama, boy talk, and fun.

Remembering back to one such moment, Harper squeezed her eyes shut and stopped her work. Lora was opening all the blinds to bring the sun in. Harper had complained and refused only to be needled into getting dressed and out the door. At this point, though they had both said words that left a cloud over the car ride. Something gave way and Harper thanked Lora for being the best friend an introvert could have. After that Lora promised to always bring her along.

Harper opened her eyes and transitioned to dragging branches to the camp. If Lora made it to this new world, Harper would find her and they would get to have a girl's night out.

Dropping her burdens near the door, Harper entered camp and broke out some food. Manual labor like this really could work up an appetite. Taking her first bite of the jerked meat, Harper wished for some more seasonings. Shield Boar had a more gamey flavor than she'd anticipated. Expecting it to be like pork was her fault, though. Dipping the thermos lid into the spring, she took a drink of crystal clear water. The combination worked wonders.

Filling up, she watched her reserves ticking back up. Pinching the fat on her side, she wondered how reserves played a part in energy storage. Reaching into the status fixture, it didn't really have any answers on where the reserves resided and how they were used. Sure she had read in magic and health that it was converted into the directly usable resource but why it worked that way remained a mystery.

Feeling stuffed, she took a break to read some survival literature. With the wall complete, she felt the freedom to read in a pocket of sunlight filtering through the branches. Staying engaged with study material hadn't been more manageable in her life. Everything was relevant to her. Even communicated in the driest, most utilitarian method, Harper couldn't help but be captured with what she was reading.

Snapping her out of her reprieve, the growing fear stole her attention. Swallowing, Harper realized that she may never have more than an hour or two of uninterrupted peace again. While it was a more profound peace than her trauma recovering self had been able to reach, it was a fragile peace.

Putting some iron in her spine, she walked to the door of the camp. Laying her hand on the door again, she engaged her magics intelectus.

[Primitive door - valid target

Empower (0/500)

Shield (46/250)]

Channeling power from her heart to the second option, the intelectus faded mentally. The intelectus became a conduit for Harper to reach the essence of the shielding. In her mind's eye, it was a blue crystal made of two pyramids with their flat sides fused together. Reaching out to it, Harper's influence was intercepted by a charging mind. The mind or instinct of the Shield Boar didn't know it was dead. Poor thing.

With genuine compassion in her, she set to wielding the unfortunate truth that the Boars mind and instincts didn't have a purpose anymore. As a shield, the truth held against all attacks and she continued to press forward to the glowing crystal. Reaching out with her mind's hands, she held the crystal close. In her arms, the crystal felt like her powers being spent. Safety and security a blanket of confidence. Dropping the resolve of her gentle truth, she offered the Boar gratitude.

Coming back to herself, blue lighting feed from her chest, saturating a blue glimmer the door now emitted.

DING

A chime pulled her attention to an old notification. If it wasn't for keeping her status intelectus up, she wasn't sure she would have caught it.

Welcome to Leternum, your new world. Adapt. Live.

Transition phase.

1) Vanquish the monster.

2) Prove a crafting skill.

After having the basic skills that will be required to succeed in Leternum you will be placed into the main world of Leternum. Enhanced skill growth is granted to aid this transition phase.

Quest progress? Was building a whole damn camp not considered crafting!

If passing the transition phase requires specialized magic… how many can make it out? What was so special about the door that this camp didn't have? The monster!

The answer was in the quest itself. Vanquish the monster then craft. Having crafted with a pseudo monster and then added magic maybe that counted. Someone without a building magic skill could still pass. That had to be it. Thinking of moving to whatever Leternum was and being all alone just left a pit of sadness.

How weak could my trust be?

After seeing so many times where whoever chose to transfer her made room for her to conquer and succeed a single moment of misunderstanding and she turned coat. Shaking her head, she refocused on what was at hand in the here and now.

Harper scanned the new door.

[Shield door of unnamed camp

Boars hide (passive): Generates a defensive aura that protects the door from all attacks below threshold. Blunts all attacks above threshold

Grateful return (active): Generates a door-sized plane of shield energy and launches straight from the outside of the door with the force of a charging shield boar]

If her magic could upgrade pseudo-monster to quest completing monster, what could she do with actual monster remains? How valuable was her magic in the new world she was going to? Shaking her brunette hair, Harper stopped daydreaming of celebrity status where she would be well paid to raise the result of the monster remains by one tier or more. No, right now, she had a bigger problem.

Using her tablet as a clock, she found that her magic refilled to panic-inducing uncomfortable within two hours. Right now, sleeping well enough to maintain performance became her primary concern. Poor rest was just as dangerous as overconfidence. Tasks she'd jump into with both feet because she'd judge were within her ability could be her undoing. Even with health to lean back on, becoming injured, infected or otherwise sick would leave her at a distinct disadvantage. Survival was a lot more about momentum and consistency than most people realized… according to her books anyway.

The way they put it, downward momentum was difficult to put the brakes on and upward momentum meant you'd be more able to take advantage of an opportunity that would put you more ahead. Nature's version of the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. Taking a hit because she was off her game from panic sleeping was a threat.

Summoning her building intelectus, Harper got to work trying to build a solution. First, she formed the mental image of a bed that she could then fortify. Wooden beam frame with fiber rope netting, it'd be a primitive foundation for a primitive mattress. Not that she had higher expectations out here. Finalizing her design with a flat braided smooth bark mattress filled with the seeds from a dandelion tree. Harper squared her shoulders, thrust out her arms, and called forth her magic.

[Net bed - invalid target]

She sputtered out as her magic did. An uneasy feeling Harper couldn't contribute to her magic settled into her heart. If she was constantly limited by what was a valid target, then the threat of overwhelming panic may become inevitable.